We're learning more about Stephen Paddock, the "lone wolf" in the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.
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Police tape blocks off the home of Stephen Paddock on Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Mesquite, Nev. Paddock killed dozens and injured hundreds on Sunday night when he opened fire at an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas.(Photo: Chris Carlson, AP)

Investigators on Tuesday dug deeper into how the Las Vegas rampage gunman carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, while searching for clues on what motivated him to kill and maim strangers enjoying a night of country music.

Two days after carrying out a horrendous attack on an outdoor music festival from his perch in a luxury hotel suite — even as authorities glean more evidence — the shooter Stephen Paddock remains very much an enigma to authorities.

At 64, he was older than the typical assailant in a mass shooting incident — who researchers have found, with the exception of school shootings, are most often in their 30s and 40s. Investigators also have not indicated that the gunman exhibited any warning ahead of the assault.

To the contrary, the gunman’s younger brother, Eric Paddock, said the shooter — a retired accountant with a taste for $100 per hand poker — lived a comfortable life and had no-known mental health illnesses or other problems.

The gunman had been licensed as an aircraft pilot in the past, had a girlfriend, owned multiple properties, and recently had gone on a cruise, according to family and public records.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said Tuesday investigators were still trying to determine the motive, but he believed authorities would "absolutely" nail it down.

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In a press conference, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said alleged gunman Stephen Paddock's girlfriend is a "person of interest" in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
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"We anticipate a substantial amount of information to come in the next 48 hours," Lombardo said.

While neither authorities nor his family have been able to answer definitively what pushed Paddock — who authorities have described as a “lone wolf” and President Trump has pilloried as “demented” — to carry out the attack, swatches of a portrait of the gunman’s methods and background have begun to take shape.

On Tuesday, investigators were examining the shooter’s recent transfer of about $100,000 to the Philippines, as authorities scour Stephen Paddock’s life for a possible explanation for the attack, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday.

The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the purpose of the transaction was not immediately clear and it was not certain whether it would lead to a motive for the assault.

The family of Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, is from the Philippines. Lombardo said Danley, who authorities have described as a "person of interest," was in the Philippines at the time of the shooting. But Reuters reported late Tuesday that she was en route back to the U.S.

Jill Snyder, special agent in charge of the ATF's San Francisco division, also confirmed that 12 of the weapons were modified with technology known as a "bump-stock'' that allows for rapid firing, similar to a machine gun.

The modification, which uses the weapon's natural recoil to fire in rapid succession, is legal, though controversial, as it allows gun owners to bypass machine-gun restrictions that require special permits and fingerprinting.

In addition, investigators believe the gunman set up two surveillance cameras for a view of the hallway outside his door as well as a third camera in peep hole of his hotel suite door.

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Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said the alleged Las Vegas gunman had cameras, and he was likely monitoring his surroundings. Lombardo said, "I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody."
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"It was obviously premeditated," Lombardo said. "The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room...I'm pretty sure he evaluated everything he did and his actions, which is troublesome."

Police said that Paddock, who killed 58 and wounded more than 500 others in the shooting spree before killing himself, brought at least 23 guns to his 32nd floor hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort from where he carried out the attack. Investigators also found 10 suitcases in the room that they believe were used to bring the arsenal of weapons into the hotel, Lombardo said.

Investigators say they found another 19 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition at the man’s home in Mesquite, Nev. In addition, Lombardo revealed a search of a house that Paddock owned in Reno turned up more guns and a plethora of ammunition.

Police said they also expected to review several days of surveillance footage in hopes of detailing Paddock's movements in the lead up to the massacre. He checked into the Mandalay Bay on Sept. 28. Investigators are also searching the gunman's electronic devices.

Several gun shop owners in Nevada and elsewhere have already come forward to say that they sold weapons to the gunman.

The owners of Guns & Guitars, a dealer not far from gunman’s Mesquite home, confirmed selling guns to Paddock more than once. Janis and Mike Sullivan, the co-owners of the shop, noted they do not sell automatic weapons and are not licensed to do so.

“He passed every federal background check, every time he bought a gun,’’ Janis Sullivan, 67, told USA TODAY while standing behind the front-porch screen door of their house in Mesquite.

Chris Michel, the owner of Dixie GunWorx in St. George Utah, said he sold Paddock a shotgun earlier this year.

Michel said he noticed nothing unusual about the man.

"He was a normal, average 'Joe Blow' kind of guy," Michel said. "There was nothing special that happened. He came in a couple of different times, we dealt with him as a normal customer."

The shooter is also believed to have purchased a number of weapons at Cabela’s in Verdi, Nev., according to a federal law enforcement official. The official who is not authorized to comment publicly said that a number of big box gun dealers, including Cabela’s, have voluntarily contacted law enforcement authorities to provide information about the shooter’s gun purchases.

Mourners react during a candlelight vigil at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) for victims of a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nev.(Photo: EUGENE GARCIA, EPA-EFE)

Investigators also hope to gain more insight from the gunman’s companion, Danley, who Lombardo said was traveling in Asia at the time of the incident. Police have described Danley, a former high-limits hostess at the Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa in Reno, has already provided some information to authorities.

Investigators found an undisclosed amount of ammonium nitrate, a type of fertilizer that has been used as a bomb component in the suspect’s vehicle parked at the hotel, Lombardo said.

The discovery of ammonium nitrate slowed investigators' pace Monday as authorities feared that the gunman also may have had explosives.

The material found in the vehicle, however, had not been assembled into an explosive. A powerful ammonium nitrate and fuel oil bomb was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City attack that left 168 dead.

Paddock’s late father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, was a convicted bank robber who spent years on the lam in the late 1960s and 1970s, and at one point earned a spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. The father was eventually captured after gaining notoriety for operating Oregon’s first legal bingo parlor.

While the FBI described the elder Paddock as “psychopathic,” federal law enforcement officials have downplayed that the father’s notorious past may have had an impact on the gunman’s actions. Eric Paddock, the gunman’s brother, also downplayed his father’s involvement with the family—noting that they grew up without him in their life.

Neighbors of the gunman said that there wasn’t much that stood out about the gunman beyond his obvious passion for high-stakes gambling.

Federal investigators have confirmed that they are probing the gunman's gambling habits. Authorities are reviewing the recent transfers of thousands of dollars involving the suspect and links to gambling activities that would have tripped mandatory government notification requirements, a federal law enforcement official told USA TODAY.

But the official noted that the review was only one part of wide-ranging search for a possible motive in the attack.